We know the pairs – ESL Pro League S8 – Finals preview

We know the pairs – ESL Pro League S8 – Finals preview.

This morning, ESL Pro League organizers announced pairs in the first round of competition. Teams found out their opponents and they started with preparation. Hours and hours of gameplay come down to this point. Counter-Strike fans are so excited to see the most skilled teams in the world together in Denmark.

Very interesting matches are going to be played in this event, and I am going to provide you all the information you need to know, as well as the preview of some significant first-round matches and tournament.

Format and rules

I am not going bothering you with boring information. Here are just some elementary rules and forms that you should know. ESL Pro League Season 8 – Finals will be played from 4th to 6th December and Play-offs will be held from 7th to 9th December in Odense, Denmark. For those who want to watch live streams, Denmark time zone is CET.

Teams are separated into two different groups. They are going to use two double-elimination format (GSL). Each group has 8 teams, and their goal is to be one of the Top 3 teams in the group. Teams are going to play best of 1 matches in an initial phase, and afterward, they are going to play only best of 3.

As I said, Top 3 teams will reach Knock-out Stage according to next rule: Winner of the group has a direct path to the Semi-final, and 2nd and the 3rd team will play in Quarters. Of course, second teams cannot encounter each other in Quarters. The prize pool of the tournament is amazing $750.000 USD. Considering such a big prize, there will be no lack of motivation.

Favourite(s) for the winner

I put the letter “s” in brackets with purpose. There are many top teams in the competition, but only one team really stands out. Yes, I talk about domestic team Astralis. Not only that they play on the home ground, but they also have an unbelievable season behind them. A Danish team has a chance to do something incredible – to complete Intel Grand Slam.

If they manage to accomplish that, they will receive additional $100.000 USD. Glav1e and his teammates won 3 out last 8 Intel Grand Slam, and they have a chance to win another one. Astralis won the last three tournaments which they played. They have an aura of invincibility surrounding them.

Regardless of that, their opponents will analyze theirs loses from Major in Copenhagen as well as from Premier from Stockholm.

However, the Danish team stands alone on the top of  CS: GO Ranking with good reason and their first opponent ViCi Gaming knows that. Their coach advent and his teammates are basically freshmen on the big scene. This Chinese team with one Malaysian player played only two Premiers in their history.

They don’t have so much experience and it is going to be hard for them to compete with Astralis in the first round. In spite of that, they are in decent form, considering they won ESL Pro League Season 8 – Asia, as well as Asia Minor Championship, the qualifier tournament for the main event in Katowice in 2019. In the end, ViCi Gaming wouldn’t be here if they didn’t deserve that.

Eternally 2nd-3rd

Team Liquid is another potential winner of ESL Pro League Season 8 – Finals. If we look at the results of nitr0 & company, we will see that they finished as 2nd or 3rd so many times last year. They failed to win any main event except cs_summit 2 Major in LA. Many times they confronted Astralis in the final round, and they lost each time.

To be more precise, they won only 1 of 13 maps. It sounds absolutely devastating. Therefore, we can say they suffer from Astralis disease. Considering Team Liquid is placed high on the Ranking list, they need to do something in order to win the first Premier tournament. They have to risk and to make some unpredictable moves. Before mentioning their first opponent, I will say a couple of words about Natus Vincere.

This East-European team has a decent season, and it is placed right behind the Astralis. Unfortunately, they had not so good results recently. So we don’t know what to expect from them, but Natus Vincere is definitely one of the favorites for winning the title here. Their first opponent is ORDER.

This Australian team won ESL Pro League S8 – Oceania, and they also had decent results this season. Despite that, it is very unlikely that ORDER can hurt Natus far away home.

NAVI’s Practice Before ESL:

G2 Esports’s last hope

G2 Esports have been really shaken by recent changes. The atmosphere in a team is very bad. The French team has a very bad season. Consequently, some roster moves were made. Ex6TenZ wasn’t happy because of that decision. So this is very likely G2 Esports’s last hope to improve situation drastically. Can G2 Esports make a breakthrough?

Time will answer that question. They have a really tough opponent in a first round. It is going to be hard for G2 Esports to beat Team Liquid, but they just have to try.